Packaging jig



April 22, 1969 w. l.. HANLEY 3,439,605 f PACKAGING JIG Filed March 1e, 196e sheet of s 26 Y FIG. 2

48 4s BY ATTORNEYS April 22, 1969 w. l.. HANLEY l PAcxAGlNG JIG sheetiofs Filed March 16. 1966 ATTORNEYS W. L.. HANLEY PACKAGING JIG Apil 22, 1969 Sheet Filed March 16, 1966 w .GI

-1NVENTOR- WILLIAM l.. HANLEY ATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3,439,605 PACKAGING JIG William L. Hanley, Palm Beach, Fla., assignor to The Hanley Company, Bradford, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Mar. 16, 1966, Ser. No. 534,773 Int. Cl. B65b 13/00, 13/04, 13/06 U.S. Cl. 100--7 10 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE The following description is concerned with a device for packaging bricks, concrete blocks and the like. This device is a packaging jig comprising two walls at right angles to each other one of which has at least an inner surface inclined to the horizontal, together with a base which is pivotally mounted adjacent the lower edge of the inclined wall so that it may be Ipositioned in a horizontal plane or in a plane at right angles to the surface of the inclined wall. Thus a corner is formed providing a guide for stacking of bricks which since the base is also inclined to the horizontal urges the bricks by gravity against the inclined wall during stacking, the base after the bricks have been strapped together being moved to the horizontal position to rest on a conveyor out of contact with the inclined wall.

This invention is directed to a jig for use in assembling a plurality of articles such as brick, for example, in a tight stack.

One object of the invention is to provide a jig in which a tight stack of articles can be assembled by stacking them individually to form a stack which is inclined at an angle to the horizontal to aid in forming a tight bundle.

A further object is to provide a mechanism of this type which is adapted to permit the insertion of protective corner sheets for the stack and tie wires or straps commonly used in binding the individual articles into a unitized package.

A further object of the invention is to provide a jig in which the stack when completed can be tipped back so that its vertical axis is at right angles to the horizontal and then may be moved as a bundle out of the jig in preparation for further handling.

The detailed mechanism, by means of which the various above objects can be accomplished is illustrated in one form in the appended drawings.

In those drawings:

FIGURE l is a top plan view of the jig;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view thereof;

FIGURE 3 is an exploded view of the three indexing surfaces of the jig and the roller supporting mechanism positioned under the floor of the jig;

FIGURE 4 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 4--4 of FIG. l;

FIGURE 5 is a cross sectional View taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 4; and

FIGURE 6 is an elevational view of the front of the oor of the jig and associated mechanism with some parts broken away to show hidden detail.

In the art of forming a unitized package of articles of various kinds, as, for example, building brick or concrete block, it has been common to provide a jig in the form of a pair of indexing walls lying at right angles to each other with one wall tipped rearwardly. A third wall forming the floor extends horizontally. In order to form a tight package, a wedge-shaped jig was placed on the iioor of the device so as to form a right angle with the "ice rearwardly tilting wall. Thus the articles when stacked in the corner thus formed would, as is well4 known in the art, be more tightly stacked. The difficulty with this arrangement has been that the resulting stack, with its vertical axis inclined to the horizontal as determined by the wedge shaped bottom jig, was not easily handled by the usual fork lift truck. In accordance with the machine of this invention, this difficulty has been avoided.

Referring to the drawings, suicient of the foundation framework in the form of I beams has been indicated at 10 to suggest how the device of this invention is mounted. Indexing surfaces of the packaging jig are provided by three walls 12, 14 and 16, all of which are arranged at right angles with respect to each other during the stacking operation. As will be seen from the various figures, the wall 12 is wedge shaped so that its face is tipped at a modest angle to the horizontal. The'wall 14 extends at right angles to the Wall 12 and the floor or platform 16, as shown for example in FIG. l, is tilted so as to form a right angle with the indexing face of the wall 12. The indexing face of the wall 14 is at right angles to the indexing face of the platform 16. As shown in FIG. 4, attached to the bottom edge of the rear Wall 12 is an angle iron 18 which cooperates with a pair of fixed -guiding rollers 20 mounted on the framework 10. As shown, particularly in FIG. 2, the wall 12 is supported by a series of angle irons 22 secured thereto. Attached to the upper ends of the angle irons 22 are roller supports 24 which have guided movement in an overhead tubular rail 26. The rail 26, of course, is supported from above in any suitable manner. It will be seen then that the wall 12 can be moved from the position `shown in FIG. 2 to the left, as indicated by the arrow and the dotted image thereof until it is fully Withdrawn from alignment with the platform 16.

As shown in several of the figures, the iioor or platform 16 is pivotally mounted at its rear edge on a shaft 28. This shaft is journaled in a series of bearings28b and is enclosed between the bearings by tubes 28C to minimize the entrance of abrasive dust. The bearings 28b are `secured to a horizontal platform, such as the steel plate 30 mounted on the framework 10. Welded to the under side at the front edge of the plate 30 is an angle iron 32 and overlying its vertical face is a cover plate 34, on which is journaled in thev bearings 38 a shaft 36. Secured to this shaft are several pairs of arms 40 which have mounted at their free ends the rollers 42. The rollers 42 engage the under surface of the platform 16, see FIG. 6, for a purpose to be explained later.

Extending front to rear on the base plate 30 and secured thereto are a series of angle irons 30a, on which are journaled a plurality of rollers 44, preferably having anti-friction bearings.

Referring to FIG. 6, it will be seen that the platform 16 is formed of a plate, to the front edge of which is welded an apron 16b. The plate 16 is formed with a series of grooves 16a which are positioned to align with grooves 12a in the indexing face of the wall 12. As shown in FIG. 4, the lower ends of the base wall of the grooves 12a curve towards the front face of the wall so as to form a smooth passageway into the rear ends of the grooves 16a. Also shown in FIG. 3 are a series of fixed abutments 30h secured to the base plate 30.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 a lever 46 is secured to the end of shaft 36 and is pivotally connected to the piston rod of a fluid pressure engine 48. The cylinder of this engine is pivotally mounted at 52 to a support assembly 50.

It is preferred, as shown in several of the figures, to provide the indexing face of the Wall 12 with spacing strips 12e and to likewise provide the face of wall v14 with spacing strips 14C.

In use the wall 12.is positioned in engagement with the wall 14 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and the iiuid pressure engine 48 is operated so that the oor of the jig is tilted to the horizontal but lies at right angles to the rearwardly inclined indexing face of the Wall 12. This relationship is clearly shown in FIGS. 2 and 4. The articles to be stacked, as for example building bricks or blocks, are then stacked layer by layer in the corner thus formed. After each layer or in some instances every other layer a sheet of paper or cardboard is positioned on the layer, with its rear and righthand edges extending respectively into the spaces formed by the raised surfaces 12C and 14c. These sheets also extend over the left and front edges'of the layers and serve to protect the face edges of the brick on the surface of the package from damage. The articles are stacked on the tilted platform 16 against the index faces of the walls 12 and 14 until a stack of the desired dimensions has been assembled. Binding wire or strap is then passed through the aligned grooves 12a and 16a so that they can be brought around the stack at suitable points and drawn tight, in accordance with modern package binding procedures. The remaining corners of the stack can be protected against the strap pressure, as is usual, by the use f protective paper or cardboard strips. Pressure fluid is then supplied to the fluid pressure engine 48 to cause counterclockwise rotation of the shaft 36, see FIG. 2, carrying with it the arms 40 and the rollers 42 mounted thereon. As these arms move in a counterclockwise direction the platform or floor 16, with the articles stacked thereon, is returned to horizontal position. As the platform 16 reaches horizontal position a multitude of rollers 44 are presented to the stack through the slots 16C in the platform 16 so that by the time the platform 16 is in horizontal position the stack will rest on the rollers 44. T'he stack is now vertical and has moved substantially out of contact with the indexing face of the rear Wall 12. This wall is then slid to the left until it is completely out of alignment with the platform 16. The stack can then be easily pushed through the position of wall 12 onto the roller conveyor 28, see FIG. l, from which it can be picked up on the usual fork lift truck without any complication.

From the above description it will be apparent that the embodiment of the invention selected for illustrative purposes is capable of considerable variation in its structural detail without departure from the novel subject matter disclosed.

What is claimed:

1. A packaging machine for stacked articles comprising a pair of generally upright walls arranged to form a right angle corner, the inner face of one of said walls being inclined outwardly, a generally horizontal platform pivotally supported at the base of said inclined face wall forming a iioor for said corner and means for selectively positioning said platform either at an obtuse angle 0 1 at a right angle with respect to the inclined face of said one wall.

2. In the combination of claim 1 conveyor means lying in a horizontal plane, on which articles stacked in said corner may be moved when said platform is positioned horizontally and at an obtuse angle to said inclined wall.

3. In the combination of claim 2 said conveyor means comprising a plurality of rollers and said platformV having slots through which said rollers project when the platform is horizontal.

4. In the combination of claim 1 means for supporting said inclined face wall for movement away from said other wall. Y

5. In the combination of claim 3 a second conveyor means onto which a stack of said articles can be moved from said first conveyor.

6. In the combination of claim 1 said last means including a power operated mechanism for effecting pivotal movement of said platform.

7. In the combination of claim 1 one of said generally upright walls and said platform having channels through which binding means can be passed around a stack of articles positioned in said corner.

-8. In the combination of claim 1 said last means comprising a power operated crank mechanism for raising and lowering said platform.

9. In the combination of claim 1 a plurality of spacing strips on the face of each of said generally upright walls.

10. In the combination of claim 9 said spacing-strips on said walls being spaced apart to form grooves therebetween and said spacing strips on one said generally upright Wall being in alignment with those on the other generally upright wall.

References Cited FOREIGN PATENTS 11/ 1960 Great Britain.

BILLY J. WILHITE, Primary Examiner.

U.s. C1. X.R. 

